connecting to home computer through router without direct IP address?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter Rilling
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Peter Rilling

I don't know if this is possible, but maybe someone has some suggestions.

I have a home network with two computers, a dsl router/modem, and wireless
connectivity.

Now, I would imaging that all computers share the same ip address when
communicating externally where the router does not form of address
translation.

What I would like to do is to be able to connect to my computer from
external locations like at work (maybe VPN in or something). Because the
externally visible IP address is attached to the router and not the
computer, I cannot simply connect to that address. Is there some way of
configuring a home network so that I can push through the router and be able
to connect to a specific machine on my network without that machine actually
having an external address?
 
By the way, I don't want to spend any money to make this happen. I don't
want to purchase a static IP from my provider. I don't want to purchase any
additional hardware or software or services.
 
Peter Rilling said:
I don't know if this is possible, but maybe someone has some suggestions.

I have a home network with two computers, a dsl router/modem, and wireless
connectivity.

Now, I would imaging that all computers share the same ip address when
communicating externally where the router does not form of address
translation.

What I would like to do is to be able to connect to my computer from
external locations like at work (maybe VPN in or something). Because the
externally visible IP address is attached to the router and not the
computer, I cannot simply connect to that address. Is there some way of
configuring a home network so that I can push through the router and be able
to connect to a specific machine on my network without that machine actually
having an external address?
Click to expand...

It's called "Port forwarding": You create a rule (or a "tunnel") in
your router that directs packets for a given port to the correct
internal IP address. In the case of a VPN, it's packets for port
1723 that must be redirected.
 
Thanks. I will look into that and see if my dsl router supports that.
Don't know if it does because it was free with my account so it is probably
not top of the line.

What about security implications? If I all of a sudden I open that port,
then anyone can attempt to VPN in, correct?
 
Peter Rilling said:
Thanks. I will look into that and see if my dsl router supports that.
Don't know if it does because it was free with my account so it is probably
not top of the line.

What about security implications? If I all of a sudden I open that port,
then anyone can attempt to VPN in, correct?
Click to expand...

You have two possible barriers:
- Account name / password
- Tell your router to accept packets from certain fixed
IP addresses only, and reject the rest.
 
Thanks. I will look into that and see if my dsl router supports that.
Don't know if it does because it was free with my account so it is
probably not top of the line.
Click to expand...

I would think that ALL cable/dsl routers support port mapping, no matter
how cheap they are.

I'm not going to address security other than to say set up the vpn, or
remote desktop, or whatever, to use some oddball ports OTHER than the
default. From what I understand, that SQL Server worm thing from a year,
or few, ago, only affected servers that were left at the default port.


As for the dynamic IP address issue...
I have a cable internet, with a dynamic IP, and the modem is on 24/7.
Typically what happens, is that when the lease expires, the modem asks
for a new IP, indicating a preference for the same IP it just had. All of
this happens almost instantaneously, so the IP address will be the same
for months on end. The only time it does change is when the ISP does a
network re-config, or the modem is turned off for some reason or another,
like when the electricity goes out.

There are several organizations that offer dynamic IP re-direction,
cjb.net, dyndns.org, no-ip.? . cjb.net allows you to enter your actual IP
adress on their webpage, which will then re-direct ALL requests to your
IP address. I can't say if the others do this, as one I had used in the
past would only redirect to a webpage, not a wholesale DNS re-direct.

Then, there are small client utilities you can run that will sense that
your WAN IP has changed and automatically update your DNS record at
whatever organization you choose, which eliminate the need manually check
the current IP to see if it's changed, and subsequently go to a website
and change it.

DanS
 
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